[Info-vax] OT: Microsoft got its hands on Skype for $ 8.5 billion

[Bob Koehler]

In article <4dc964d0$0$41117$e4fe514c at news.xs4all.nl>, MG <marcogbNO at SPAMxs4all.nl> writes:
> 
> In a Dutch article I just read that Microsoft has pledged that they're
> going to 'open up' Skype for 'intelligence agencies'.  I'm not an
> American citizen, but isn't it unconstitutional in the USA to spy on
> the citizens?  (I know it isn't in the Netherlands, but that's the
> Netherlands.)

   Constituion?  Didn't W throw that pesky thing out?

   Generally spying on US citizens requires permission of a court (i.e.
   a search warrant), except for specific cases where Congress has passed 
   a law authorizing the spy agencies to ignore the Constitution.

   Since 2009, some, but not all, of the latter has been reversed.

   IMHO, the few legitimate needs of the government not accounted for by
   the requirement for search warrants could have been better addressed
   by a small tune-up to the ways warrants are written.